Track-laying vehicles are broadly used in construction or military applications for their superior tracking capability in rough terrain. A track on a track-laying vehicle is under tremendous strain and severe wearing conditions when the vehicle is in operation. This is especially true with modern track-laying vehicles where the vehicle is expected to carry a high load and capable of superior acceleration and speed.
A track on a track-laying vehicle can be constructed with either an integral tread system or a replaceable tread system. In the integral tread system, a track is connected by many track units, each is molded of hard rubber material around a steel support member. A track with the integral tread system has the benefit of lightweight, however, the entire track must be replaced when the tread rubber surface is worn.
In a track equipped with replaceable tread members, individual tread members are connected by mechanical means to a permanent steel link unit and can be replaced when they are worn. The replaceable tread track can therefore be more easily maintained in the operation of a track-laying vehicle.
Conventional tread members are molded of hard rubber materials. The durability of the rubber and thus the lifetime of a tread is always a problem in the design of a track. The selection of the rubber material is a difficult task in that different performance requirements of a track-laying vehicle demand different properties of the rubber material. For instance, a high durometer hard rubber material used in molding a tread member works well at high speed on smooth roads but disintegrates quickly in rough terrain. On the other hand, a low durometer soft rubber material would work well in rough terrain but deteriorates quickly on smooth roads at high speeds.
The most commonly seen problems with rubber molded tread members are overheating which causes blowouts and catastrophic failure of the rubber, chunking where large pieces of the rubber materials fall off the tread member, and rapid wear due to the poor abrasion resistance of the rubber material. In military applications, the high thermal profile of rubber is also undesirable since a track-laying vehicle such as a tank can be easily detected in the dark by infrared detectors.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a new composite tread member which can be used in a track-laying vehicle equipped with either an integral tread system or a replaceable tread system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a composite material for the molding of a tread member used on a track-laying vehicle capable of long surface life and problem-free operations.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a polymeric composite material for the molding of a tread member used on a track-laying vehicle capable of providing prolonged surface life without premature failures.